Ælis
Preliminary Remarks While this article page is being updated, feel free to read the full PDF document on the principles of the language by downloading it here. General information hAnWnArAsAiA2tE k1lISK Ælis is an aesthetical language with the aim to perhaps someday serve as an IAL, but also a language with a refreshing approach on language and grammar, which can be used by aficionados of theoretical linguistics to explore the boundaries of human grammar. Nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs do not exist in a grammatical sense, neither do verb conjugations, tenses, moods or voices. The stress in words and sentences is virtually irrelevant, there are no tones, and word order is free. There is hardly any punctuation, nor are there spaces to divide words or sentences from one another. Nonetheless, Ælis has a solid, very consistent grammar. The word "Ælis", in Ælis, means 'peace'. "egælis" means 'harmonic' or 'peaceful language'. Alphabet and Writing Phonemes :Alphabet The alphabet has 21 letters, of which 5 vowels, 15 consonants and 1 diphthong which is regarded as a vowel. It is written with proper symbols: Syllabic writing The two bottom rows of the foregoing alphabetic table represent the so called primary ''and ''secondary case. Ælis is written in an alternation of these two cases in order for the different root words (which in Ælis equal syllables) to be visually distinguishable. The writing style follows this pattern: the first phoneme of every root word is written in the primary case, every other letter is written in the secondary case. They have been designed so that the secondary case letters appear to the top-right of the primary case letters. For example: * aM = am * mA = ma Root word structure Apart from proper names and loaned words, only certain root word patterns are admissible: Two letter root words: #CV: tW tæ (colour) #VC: aR ar (reason, causality) #VV: uA ua (centre, half) Three letter root words: #CVC: lIS lis (concept, notion) #CVV: rEA rea (name) Grammar Morphology Structure of words Words are constructed with one simple but fundamental guideline: the head of the root word cluster has a nominal value; the tail of the root word cluster is dependent, adjectival or adverbial. An example: tE te means 'human/person'. uBlE uble means 'strong'. *tEuBlE te-uble means 'a strong person' *uBlEtE uble-te means 'human strength' Words that are conceptually related will mostly be lexically similar too. Some examples of words that are lexically and semantically related: tEnAlE tenale > person-quality-much --> friend mAnAlE manale > male-quality-much --> a male friend nInAlE ninale > female-quality-much --> a female friend nInAiO ninaio > female-quality-little --> a female enemy mAnAiO manaio > male-quality-little --> a male enemy tEnAiO tenaio > person-quality-little --> an enemy iItEnAlE iitenale > target-person-quality-much --> to become friends with lItEnAlE litenale > origin-person-quality-much --> to stop being friends with etc. Personal pronouns All personal pronouns exist in three genders: male, female, and undefined (not neutral!). The undefined pronouns are used when a speaker is unaware of the gender, or when they don't wish to specify. Personal pronouns are only used for objects that are interpreted as having a personality: people, sporadically animals or anthropomorphized objects,... Syntax Instead of having word classes, Ælis grammar strongly focuses on the semantical functions that words have within a sentence. Ælis distinguishes 8 functions, which are divided into three categories. All of these functions in a sentence are optional, none are ever obligarory. No function is restricted to just one use per sentence. Primary functions Topic *The topic is usually a description of an action or a state. It is essive, which means that it expresses a form of 'to be', 'to exist'. The corresponding morpheme is hA. *The agent is from whom or what the topic originates. The corresponding morpheme is lA. Usually, this is the initiator of an action or a sender of a message. *The patient is at whom or what the topic is targeted. The corresponding morpheme is iA. Usually, this is the (passive) object of an action or the receiver of a message, but also the subject of a state. *The modifier is an additional piece of information to the utterance. The corresponding morpheme is iA. Ususally, modifiers translate to adverbial constituents of space, time, manner, reason, etc. The equivalent of time tenses is harboured in this category, as verbs cannot convey this aspect. An example phrase: hAeLeAnAlElA1mAiA2nIiRaSdAiO [Ha'''eleanale '''laæma ia'eni '''ir'asdaio] Analytically, the sentence can be understood as follows: *the love (=topic) *by me (=agent) *for you (=patient) *in the past (=modifier of time). which means "I loved you". Because all words are marked with functions, word order is completely free and no spacing is necessary. Note: spaces are still used for clarity purposes, especially in Romanisations. Ælis formally doesn't have word classes, but can implicitly convey them through syntactical functions. E.g.: according to context, the word word dOE ('''doe) can mean 'fire', 'a bonfire', 'a flame', 'to burn' (both transitive and intransitive), 'ignite', 'to set fire', 'scorch', 'roast', etc. Therefore, translations to other languages greatly depend on the presence or absence of certain functions in a sentence. The following words will be used in an example: *dOE = fire *aNoWsI = residence *aPrA = completion *aSdAlE = future *1mA = me Now, look at the associations of these words with the syntactical functions, and look at how the translation changes as words are gradually added to the sentence: *hAdOE = action/state:fire : > 'there is fire' *hAdOEiAaNoWsI = action/state:fire + patient:residence : > there is fire, done to the house : --> the house is on fire' *hAdOEiAaNoWsIiRaPrA = action/state:fire + patient:residence + modifier:completion : > there is fire, affecting the house, with completion : ''--> the house is burning down' *hAdOEiAaNoWsIiRaPrAiRaSdAlE = action/state:fire + patient:residence + modifier:completion + modifier:future : > there is fire, affecting the house, with completion, in the future : --> 'the house will burn down' *hAdOEiAaNoWsIiRaPrAiRaSdAlElA1mA = action/state:fire + patient:residence + modifier:completion + modifier:future + agent:me : > there is fire, affecting the house, with completion, in the future, by me : --> 'I will burn down the house' etc. Vocabulary Example text '''The Lord's Prayer Category:Languages